To understand what happened to the Harvard men's basketball team last night; you've got to go back. About 82 years.

That was the start of Ivy men's basketball, And it was the start of 81 straight years without an Ivy men's basketball title for Harvard.

Lastnight, it became 82. Unless you believe in miracles.

For Cornell's 76-67 upset win over Harvard before the biggest-ever crowd at Briggs Athletic Center (2850) left the Crimson with only faint hopes in its quest for that elusive Ivy title.

The Crimson sit all alone in second place at 8-5, one game behind league-leading Cornell and Princeton--61-48 winners over Yale last night at Princeton, N.J.--with just one game remaining tonight.

And it would take a Cornell loss at Dartmouth, a Princeton loss to Brown in Princeton and a Harvard victory over Columbia at Briggs just to set up a three-way playoff for the league crown.

"You never know what's going to happen," Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said just moments after last night's loss, stilt clinging to that faint hope.

Indeed, few would have guessed what happened last night. A squad that had won just one game on the road the entire year. Cornell put on a dazzling performance to beat the Crimson at its very own game.

The Big Red never trailed after snagging an 8-6 lead just 4:14 into the game, held off each Crimson rally, shot 60 percent from the floor and then hit 16 of 18 free throws in the last 2:43 to topple the nation's best free throw shooting team.

"They did to us what we usually do to other teams," Harvard's distraught Joe Carrabino said. "They did what they had to--they shot well, played good defense and then hit all their free throws."

So the Harvard squad that entered last night's game in total control of its own destiny could only watch in the final few seconds as the Cornell cagers they had intentionally fouled sank each free throw, and with them, Harvard's hopes.

"It's just so frustrating because we had been playing so well," said Carrabino. Who led all scorers with 26 points. "And we didn't even play all that poorly tonight."

What doomed Harvard was as balanced an ofensive attack as the Crimson has faced all year. And that includes Duke. Five Cornell cagers hit the scoring books in double figures, and when they returned up the court, they provided a stingier defense than those nation-leading defenders in New Jersey.

That's about as well as we've played all year," said Cornell Coach lam Miller, who in four years has brought the Big Red to the forefront of Ivy hoop.

They just never let us into the groove of the game, "Carrabino added," We never had control of the game."